Rochester firefighter donates royalties to adult learning

Thursday

Jan 17, 2013 at 3:15 AM

ROCHESTER — In spring of 2011, Dover resident and Rochester firefighter Don McCullough, enrolled in an advanced writing class facilitated by Sue Wheeler at Dover Adult Learning Center. He had a manuscript in the works for a story he’d been carrying with him since he was 12 years old. A forced period of inactivity following a motorcycle accident on Father’s day of 2010 had him typing away at his laptop, turning his story into a written memoir.

Each week he would share excerpts. The feedback was encouraging enough that McCullough went on to share his manuscript with friends, neighbors, family members and eventually a Dover book club. All of the feedback helped to create the book that it is today. After a year spent pursuing traditional publishing routes, McCullough turned his search to the growing industry of self publishing.

“Receiving the first copy in the mail in early October was nothing short of surreal,” says McCullough.

Danny Boy a Memoir is available in paperback from Amazon and Barnes & Noble, as well as an e-reader for NOOK and Kindle by following the links from www.outskirtspress.com/dannyboy. It will soon be available for iPad via Apple. Locally, Danny Boy a Memoir can be found at River Run Books in Portsmouth, Barnes & Noble in Newington, Water Street Bookstore in Exeter and the Dover Public Library.

Last week McCullough received his first royalty check for $135 from Amazon book sales, which he donated to Dover Adult Learning Center to help future writing students.

“If the program can help another aspiring writer, I want to support that,” McCullough said.

In addition to writing classes Dover Adult Learning Center of Strafford County has a number enrichment opportunities throughout the year, including computers, cooking and fishing just to name a few; a full schedule is online at www.Dalc-Online.org.

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